I should have known better than to bring this home. Of course I admire Richard Rhodes, an accomplished and successful man, for overcoming horrific childhood abuse at the hands of his stepmother, but this is just too difficult to read. A Child Called It was bookcrossed unfinished for the same reason. From the F.O.L. mini sale.

The writing is excellent; the story is crushing and frightening. This an abused-child memoir, but it encompasses so much more of the author's life in order to give the reader a bigger picture. The abuse is the crushing part. The frightening part is the author's inner world after the abuse. He is just somewhat frightening to me in both his pain and his rage. He gets help, quite a lot of help in many ways by many people. His older brother Stanley experiences another trauma in the school the boys go to after they are removed from the family home. It sears into him in a way that is heartbreaking. I do understand the 'hole in the world' concept being both an adopted child (even with excellent adoptive parents there is still a baby with a hole in her world where the birth mother is absent) and there is a hole in my world where my deceased son is absent from this world. I sympathize and empathize, and thank the author for sharing his story.